Woman “Chased Down” By Assailant Faces Murder 1

A Missouri woman who claimed she was forced to shoot her assailant is facing murder charges after police found she lured the man to her home with the intent to kill him.

“The evidence seems to indicate she hatched a plot to find an innocent victim and murder this innocent victim in an apparent effort to frame someone else,” St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said Tuesday.

Police believe 57-year-old Pamela Hupp lured her brain-damaged victim, Louis R. Gumpenberger, 33, to her home by telling him she was a producer for NBC’s “Dateline” program, and offering him $900-1,000 to “help her re-enact a 911 call”. But Hupp did call 911, and shot every round in her revolver at Gumpenberger as an operator listened, police said.

When police arrived on scene, Hupp’s story was that he had jumped into her car and held a knife to her neck, demanding she take him to her bank to get “Russ’ money.”

“Russ” is Russell Faria, convicted in 2013 of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his wife, Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria, at their home near Troy two years before. Hupp was a key witness in that trial. But a Lincoln County judge’s refusal to allow the defense to make counteraccusations against Hupp helped win Russell Faria a new trial last year, in which he was acquitted.

Hupp was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. While at the station, she went into a police bathroom and stabbed herself in the wrist multiple times and in her neck with a pen, O’Fallon Police Chief Roy Joachimstaler said.

Born and raised in northern rural Wisconsin, she is an avid outdoors woman, target and skeet shooter, Second Amendment supporter and defender, concealed carry advocate, NRA member and frequent guest on the NRATV News programs Cam&Co and CNLive.
Jenn is a wife and mother, former private detective, active in WI politics, and an outspoken conservative gun owner. Her personal blog can be found on jennjacques.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @JennJacques.